My first real race was in 5th grade. I was at a private school in Winston-Salem called St. John's Lutheran and it was a K-8 school and there was a 1-8 track meet in the spring against 7 other schools from the Western part of North Carolina. I finished 2nd in the 5th/6th grade age group with no training running a 6:42 and the running bug was there. It also helped that my dad was a runner as well.
2) At what capacity? Athlete? Coach?From 5th grade through 12th grade I was an athlete, running for my school every year but 6th grade (6th graders can't do sports in public schools in Forsyth County). Once I graduated high school I stopped running as much and eventually my high school coach asked me to help out with track and I coached the distance runners at my high school R.J. Reynolds for 2 years before finishing up at community college and went to UNCG where I did not have time to coach although this past spring as a favor for my mom's school, I coached the distance boys at her middle school.
3) What high school did you attend? College?
I went to R.J. Reynolds High School and then followed that with two years at Forsyth Tech Community College and now I'm at UNCG and just finished up finals earlier today actually.
4) What is your favorite subject in school?
Social Studies hands down, I'm a History major with a Political Science minor.
5) Would you call yourself a running junkie? Why or why not?
Oh yea, I look at every meet result that gets posted and I've been doing "scouting reports" for my old high school coach letting him know what the teams chances are of making it to states in cross country, who can make states in track, etc.
6) What do you want to do as a profession?
I want to follow the family vocation and teach.
7) How has running impacted your life?
I've met a lot of people I probably never would have met through running and gotten lots of good advice on things that was given to me by runners from my community.
8) Did you ever race at the Foot Locker South race? How did it go?I ran it once when I was a freshman and I was registered to run as a sophmore but I got sick and could not run that year. The one time I ran the race I ran horrible, only time I was above 19:00 at McAlpine in high school.
9) Which race do your prefer . . . Foot Locker or Nike Team Nationals? Explain.
Nike Team Nationals, although it is a hard choice. The team aspect of the competition and determining a true National Champion for the team side of the sport is great, I just wish both races could somehow be combined so we could have an individual and team National Champion from the same race since right now we don't get all the top individuals at Foot Locker because they might be on a team that has a shot at Nike Team Nationals.
10) What is your favorite movie of all time?
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix with Without Limits a close 2nd, but this might just be the order until the next two Harry Potter movies come out.
11) What is currently the most played song/album you listen to?
"Goodbye Privet Drive" by Ministry of Magic, although I really want their latest album "Upward and Onward"
12) Are you originally from North Carolina?
Yes, I was born in Winston-Salem and have lived in the same house my whole life.
13) What is the coolest place you have traveled?
That's tough, but I'd have to go with Savannah, GA. Actually I was at Tybee Island, GA which is right next to Savannah for spring break of my first year at UNCG. I'm on the Ultimate Frisbee team and our Spring Break tournament was in Savannah so we stayed in a four story house on Tybee Island that included an elevator. It was really nice and relaxing and we were right on the beach.
14) Do you have personal running goals?
Be competitive in the Ultimate Runner competition this summer at Hanes Park in Winston-Salem. Its a series of 5 races (1600, 400, 800, 100, 5K) that each runner has to run in order to finish the event and be given their t-shirt. Its probably the most fun running event I've ever been to. I highly recommend running this at least once because of how much fun it is.